THE hugely anticipated new Australian work, Muriel’s Wedding the Musical, is a credit to everyone who combined to bring the much-loved 1994 film to a new life on stage — from writer P.J. Hogan to composer and lyricist Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall, designer Gabriela Tylesova and director Simon Phillips.

But last night’s world premiere of the work at Roslyn Packer Theatre really belonged to the show’s brilliant cast, led by Maggie McKenna as Muriel and Madeleine Jones as Rhonda, Muriel’s raunchy bestie.

McKenna shone brightly in her first major role — she turned 21 during rehearsals — with great vocals and an incandescent quality that won us over to the windingly common plight of the gawky, unfashionable Muriel.

The show asked for McKenna to give and give again, and she more than matched the demands of a tightly-paced and action-packed show.

Madeleine Jones backed her up with a great performance as the feisty fellow escapee from Porpoise Spit and all its petty suburban horrors — not the least of which is the gaggle of selfie-obsessed girl-pals who burn Muriel off after letting her gurgle down the last dregs of her Orgasm resort cocktail.

You should have heard the audience cheer when Jones served the bitchy foursome their richly deserved comeuppance. Christie Whelan Browne was absolutely spot on as the revolting ringleader, Tania Degano.

Muriel’s unappetising Queensland family was brilliantly led by Gary Sweet as the detestable white-shoe developer and would-be politician, Bill Heslop. In rehearsal, Sweet had been determined to find redeeming features underneath Heslop’s rapacious, self-serving exterior. This week, Sweet admitted he had had to give up looking, and in this fabulous performance he makes Heslop so nasty to his family that you see why Muriel had to get out of Porpoise Spit and escape to Sydney.

Justine Clarke played the role of Bill’s dowdy, downtrodden wife Betty with enormous empathy and restraint, paving the way for a truly heart-rending funeral scene when Muriel sings of her regret that none of the family ever appreciated their selfless, shy mum.

Deidre Chambers is the mutton-dressed-as-lamb cosmetics adviser who has lustily captured Bill Heslop’s heart, and Helen Dallimore slaps on plenty of flinty flirtation as she just happens to turn up wherever the corrupt Bill happens to be.

The sets and costumes by Tylesova are so good they are almost another character in themselves. The audience actually gasped at the first sight of Sydney on the stage, and Bill Heslop’s architectural model for coastal overdevelopment was hilarious, featuring a skyscraper in the shape of a half-peeled banana.

A musical is nothing without the essential element, and Miller-Heidke’s new music especially composed for the show was sensational. Her score, with lyrics by Nuttall, was cleverly woven together with the ABBA songs used in the original film.

When Muriel’s Wedding the Musical was first announced, the Sydney Theatre Company and Global Creatures as co-producers were at pains to say that the stage show would be just like a staged version of Muriel’s Wedding the film.

Not so. What actually happened was that Phillips and his collaborators paid homage to the film but let it fly in its own way. Like Muriel, it discovered a personality all its own.